And mercy, wearied with perpetual guilt, Lifted her prayer no more, and justice cried "God's spirit shall not always strive with man!"

The years of long forbearance slowly fled, The vision of the prophet from all eyes Vanished like sunrise vapours, and the words Of wisdom echoed like a dying voice In Sinai's wilderness; no spirit bowed, No heart relented at the coming wrath. Revel that brought no joy, and shrill-voiced mirth Most melancholy poured their madness out, And lozels wantonn'd o'er the poisoned bowl, And blasphemy embraced the shape of death, Howling hoarse curses, and all forms of sin, All gross imaginations of desire,

All vampyre appetites and goule-like lusts Trampled and triumphed o'er the laws of God.

The pictured cloud conceals the wildest storm, The earthquake leaps from slumber into rage, And guilt, most safe, is nearest to despair. All bosoms had been gored by man's excess, And all thoughts coined and coffered up to pile The matchless monument of evil deeds.

Struck by the pestilence that roamed each track

Of daily life, the Good in forests dim
Or Al-Gezira's loneliest caverns dwelt,
Pale famished anchorets, and hoary hairs
Waved in the winter-winds of Oman's sea.
These few; the undreaded Future's destinies
Rival not present policy-the scope
Of proud example, and expediency,
That sullies more than less occult offence.
Hoar heads alone rever'd celestial laws;
Exuberant youth, in confidence of time,
Held the late banquet, seeking pleasure's meed
Among the bowers of pain; and Jubal's lyre,
Hung on the willow, harped in desert winds.
To crown the cup of vengeance and to bar
All hope forever, sons of Belial poured
On Noah's heart the gall of base report

And pointed at him with a scoff and jeer,

And drave him from their dwellings with reproach.
Then came the herald of the heavens and closed,
With awful words, the prophet's mission there;

And, hovering o'er his victims in the pride
Of power, ABADDON listened to the roar
Of coming Ruin as the war-steed drinks

Upon its folds deep darkness hung and oft
Quick shooting gleams of lurid fire withdrew,
For momentary glances of mad fear,

The vast dark curtain of God's mysteries.
Then up t'was lifted o'er the lovely vault
Broader and blacker, and the thunder's voice
O'er Caucasus and Shinar's evil realm

Rushed, like the archangel's trumpet blast of doom
Crying "Repent while judgment waits your prayers
But silence answered, and ascended higher

The tempest in tremendous masses swept
Like dust before the samiel. On the peak,
The utmost pinnacle of those vast clouds,
Grasping the arrowy bolts that round his brows
Hung like a crown, and glaring down on earth
With eyes of basilisk that drank the blood,
The Appearance of a giant shape appeared;
And, as the priest and prophet sadly paused
To gaze and weep, he raised his swimming eyes
To watch the moment when the door must close
And hope expire; and, like a swirling bark
In Norway's Maelstrom, sank his awe-struck heart-
For he beheld ABADDON, calling up

All wandering vapours from the shoreless Deep,
Guiding the hurricane and hurrying on

om,

yers!"

Like fiery scorpions; east to west replied:
Pole shrieked to pole; the brazen atmosphere
Grew ghastly mid conflicting lights and shades,
And quivered till the eyeballs blurred and reeled.
And peril and dismay and fainting fear
And terror and confusion and despair
Entered, like siegers furious for the spoil,
The abodes of the deserted, while the floods
Fell, like Araxes from Armenian hills,

Or thousand torrents from Cordillera' brow,
Down-down upon the drenched and gasping earth.
The apostates at their feast in songs obscene
Mocked Noah and his storm-ship, shouting "Lo!
"The madness of the hypocrite! his beams
"Of gopher to the cruel seas will tell

"A tale of wreck, and all his crowded beasts
"Will roar the lawless ocean into

peace.

"Fill round and drink for wisdom-the red wine

"Mantles with pure philosophy-old CAIN
"Commends its cheering in the chilly night!"
So talked the infidels; but morn replied!

They slept the sleep of wassail; but, ere stars Faded behind the universe of clouds,

The herds sent up a piteous cry—the flocks
Were hurried o'er the illimitable waste

Of countless torrents and the desert beasts
Mingled their yells with the last wail of men.

Day broke and in the gray and quivering gloom The dull, cold twilight of the cheerless morn, All eyes beheld on waters bubbling up From every fountain of the yawning earth, And pouring from each livid mass above, The Cypress Ark, the home of truth and love, The just man's sanctuary; and with shrieks, And supplications and despairing tears, Ten thousand voices blended in one prayer— "Receive us! save us from devouring deeps! "Receive us! save us from the tempest's rage! "Receive us! save us from the wrath of GOD!" But on o'er surging seas and broken waves Floated the Ark-the eternal door was shut.

The shuddering waters gathered, and the cries Of utter, hopeless, helpless agony

Rose o'er the crash and howl of elements

Convulsed and quivering in each other's wrath.
Vain were uplifted arms and faces wrought
To anguish; vain, the hoarse and strangled voice